Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
Chelsea fans watched on as Andrey Santos made his Premier League debut for Manchester United.
Andrey Santos called time on his Chelsea career because the bridge to regular minutes was completely jammed. With Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez locking down the midfield two, Santos initiated the exit himself, landing a £50 million move (£48m up front plus £2m in add-ons) to Manchester United.
For Chelsea, pocketing a profit on a £10m investment made business sense, and having signed Valentin Barco and Jordan Henderson since, it made total sense.
But it hasn’t been a smooth ride for Santos since moving to Old Trafford, as he struggled during pre-season and there are early doubts over minutes once Carlos Baleba joins.
Manchester United fans criticise Andrey Santos’ display vs Hull City
Andrey Santos started in a midfield two with Youri Tielemans, but was substituted in the second half for Kobbie Mainoo after failing to have much influence.
Despite not being awful, Man United fans were brutal.
One fan claimed he was “rubbish”.
Another said: “He was terrible.”
“Again another slow player who lacked intensity and deserves a bench role.” This fan said.
This supporter suggested his stats didn’t tell the truth: “The eye test tells you he wasn’t good enough today. But not just him. The rest of them too.”
A supporter added: “No positives to that performance.”
Andrey Santos’ stats tell another story
Despite all the criticism, the stats suggest that Andrey Santos put on a decent performance against Hull City, controlling the tempo at times.
The Brazilian was virtually flawless off the ball, winning a game-high 100% of his tackles, dominating 6 of his 8 duels, and chipping in with 5 recoveries and 3 key clearances.
He was fairly impressive in possession too, completing 52 passes out of 68 total touches with a 91% accuracy rate, but offered very little moving forward.